Seven Days with God’s Army

The National, a show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), has a segment titled “Seven” where reporter Mark Kelley “tries on a different lifestyle and a different point of view” for one week.

This week, he spent “seven days with God’s army.”

Watch the clip (25 minutes):

What does God’s army talk about?

Porn. They’re obsessed with the porn.

And the dangers of “rap, rock, [and] MTV.”

More of God’s army:

“It’s time to tune out and to tune off the terrorists in our living rooms.” (Presumably referring to “unwholesome” TV content)

Kelley rips on a lot of the movies/TV productions because they’re not entertaining instead of what he should be doing– criticizing the actual information. But for this segment, it’s outside the scope of what he’s trying to do: Understand where the Evangelical Christians are coming from.

He does come to a (shocker of shockers!) revelation, though:

“I gotta say this isn’t entertainment… it feels more like propaganda!”

His revelations aren’t necessarily anything new. But for those younger people– the ones the Christians in the segment are trying to reach– viewing this aspect of Christianity for the first time, I have to believe it’s a turn-off. One of the high points of the piece is simply to show the sheer dullness of the entertainment the Christians here try to promote. That’s not to say we *have* to show sex or violence to have something be entertaining– but the way you hear it in this segment, Christian-themed media is entirely drama-free. Unless of course, the “tolerance police” come to get you for thinking the Bible is Truth.

Similarly, when you hear the students’ overall message about how they are part of God’s army, they come off as just plain creepy instead of thought-provoking about why they deserve to be heard.